In a small-town bus barn, vandalized buses and a dead cat

Updated 8:22 pm, Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Hempstead ISD officials are appealing to the public for information about a bizarre case of bus sabotage - a crime whose Gothic elements include a dead cat, and which might be related to the passions of small-town politics.

In the district's bus barn early Tuesday morning, mechanic Jerry Machac noticed a pile of wires, hoses and dark fluid under Bus No. 9. Someone had cut the brake lines and ripped out various hoses. Machac found the cat's bedraggled remains lying in front of the bus, and fur was stuck to the engine and its housing, said Hempstead ISD Police Chief Gerald Robinson.

"It looked like they had taken the cat and rubbed it on the housing and the motor," said Robinson. "It was kind of weird."

The discovery came the morning after a contentious school board meeting that included discussion of two ongoing controversies in the school district - the suspensions of an administrator suspected of financial irregularities and of a principal who instructed students not to speak Spanish.

It wasn't clear whether the vandalism was connected to the suspensions, but the district superintendent, Delma Flores-Smith, said a link is possible.

On Tuesday morning, there were no obvious signs that buses other than No. 9 had been damaged, so the others rolled out as usual. After they returned, however, the driver of Bus No. 10 reported that her brakes were acting up. Mechanics found that a hose for the air brakes had been nicked. They found similar damage to Bus No. 5.

Floyd Richard, chief operating officer for the district, said no children were in danger. The damage to the air brakes, he said, might have caused the buses to jerk while braking, but they would not have had trouble stopping.

Flores-Smith, however, found the episode alarming.

"This is like attempted murder," she said. "Our kids' lives were at stake." Combined, the three buses normally carry 103 students.

Robinson, who is leading the investigation, said he has no suspects. No fingerprints were recovered. Surveillance videotape revealed only two shadowy figures with flashlights.

"Was it some kind of initiation rite?" he asked. "I have no idea."

In October, Flores-Smith placed the district's longtime business manager, Sharon Loukanis, on administrative leave while the district investigated financial irregularities including work allegedly steered to a plumbing company owned by Loukanis' husband.

In November, Hempstead Middle School principal Amy Lacey announced, over the school intercom, that students were no longer allowed to speak Spanish while at school. The announcement struck a chord. About half the district's students are Hispanic, and Waller County, in which Hempstead is located, has one of the nation's fastest-growing Hispanic populations. The story made national news, and Flores-Smith placed the principal on leave.

At the school board meeting Monday night, supporters of Loukanis and Lacey lobbied forcefully for the two to be reinstated. Flores-Smith called the atmosphere a "circus." But she noted that no direct tie has been established between the meeting and the bus sabotage.

Robinson, the district police chief, remains puzzled.

"I've been here 13 years and never seen anything of that nature," he said. "In 2012, someone stole four batteries. Other than that, this is a very quiet town."

Robinson asked that anyone with information about the crime call him at (979) 221-7743.

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